ON
THE VERGE
By Dr. Mel Waldman
(upon viewing John Marin’s exhibit
On the Verge of Wilderness
at
the Ogunquit Museum of American Art
OMAA
&
reading
his
1914
letter
to
Alfred Stieglitz)
~~~~~~~~~~
On the verge
of
something real
like
the efflorescence of ethereal love
in
the everflowing landscape
& the eerie sea
& the ephemeral sky
swirling
through a turquoise veil
diaphanous & divine
invisible
spheres of holy light
blossoming & burgeoning
glowing gloriously
within
the multicolored flowers
& fruits
&
flowing majestically
within
the sprawling solitude
of
the numinous moment
always
becoming & seeking
visibility
love seeking love
On the verge
of
something beautiful
like
spirals of light
sailing
upward
shooting stars
Heaven-bound
blooming
within wild blueberries
&
strawberries
&
dancing with seagulls
on
the rocks
outside
Jackie’s Too
in
Perkins Cove
&
darting & flitting
along
the Marginal Way
on
celestial cliffs
adorned
with wild roses
red, pink, & white
Rosa rugosa
blessing
earthly travelers
with
otherworldly visions
soothing
swirls & spirals
bathed
in opalescence
pirouetting
across the vastness
of
the sea
&
sensuous hypnotic sounds
rolling
rushing waves
crashing
into bestial rocks sacred cliffs
crushing
the chaos-serenity of ineffable beauty
beatific panorama
whirling seascape
in luscious luminescence
unbearable holy light
soaring in the kaleidoscopic sky
wild waves
dancing within a delirious dreamscape
whorling
into the red sun
&
galloping into the gorgeous sunset
intoxicating
hallucinatory vista
On the verge
of
haunting transcendence
in
search of the Source
On the verge
of
miracles everywhere
merging
with the Universal Mind
On the Verge of Wilderness
&
love seeking love
On the verge
of
Creation
I
COME
FROM
A STRANGE UNKNOWABLE PLACE
By Dr. Mel Waldman
~~~~~~~~~~
I
come from a strange unknowable place
a
selcouth Un-Being
the
land of no-land
the
sea of no-sea
the
sky of no-sky
I
come from the unfathomable nothingness
the
no-place of no-time
creation ex nihilo
&
I am
the
beautiful image of the Ultimate Nothingness
&
still, I wear the mask of grotesquerie
&
the everlasting imprint of trauma
for
I am
the
savage image of my trauma
I am
I
wear the shroud of suffering
the
shock & upheaval of my battered being
I am
my trauma that sleeps in the bestial Abyss & awakens as my Identity
I am Trauma
&
yet, an otherworldly voice within-a turquoise gem-
sits
in a circle of celestial opalescence & sings of transcendence
for
I am also the Transcendence of Trauma
I
come from a strange unknowable place
creation ex nihilo
&
I am
the
beautiful image of the Ultimate Nothingness
INSIDE
THE PSYCHOTIC HOUR
By Dr. Mel Waldman
~~~~~~~~~~
Swirling
around the rim of madness
inside
the psychotic hour
I
sail across your sacred center
an
oval omphalos into your mind
passing
through the membrane of your unfathomable universe
joining you
in the convex mirror of your being
&
inside the psychotic hour
I
rush slowly through phantasmagoria
the
whirling wilderness of your bestial brain
merciless
to your mutilated self
&
listen to your ethereal visions of eerie anguish
in
the harrowing Hieronymus Bosch landscape adorned with Dali heavens
above
the deep delirious earth & Dante’s demonic House of Fire
&
inside the psychotic hour
I
witness the cacophonous music of trauma
a
cornucopia of graveyard colors shrieking chaos
4
apocalyptic horses otherworldly stallions colored white, red, black, & pale
galloping
into the Stygian crypt the black night of the broken battered brain
plummeting
into the obsidian abyss of obliteration
&
inside the psychotic hour
I
am one with you in the seething summer of molten sorrow/madness
therapist
& patient swirling/whirling in the cauldron of August agony
waiting
for the end of summer/suffering
looking
through the convex mirror of your being in the Healing Room
MEL WALDMAN, PH. D.
Bio:
Dr. Mel Waldman is a psychologist, poet, and writer whose stories have appeared in numerous magazines including HARDBOILED DETECTIVE, ESPIONAGE, THE SAINT, PULP METAL MAGAZINE, and AUDIENCE. His poems have been widely published in magazines and books including INDIANA VOICE JOURNAL, LIQUID IMAGINATION, THE BROOKLYN LITERARY REVIEW, BRICKPLIGHT, SKIVE MAGAZINE, ODDBALL MAGAZINE, POETRY PACIFIC, POETICA, RED FEZ, SQUAWK BACK, SWEET ANNIE & SWEET PEA REVIEW, THE JEWISH LITERARY JOURNAL, THE JEWISH PRESS, THE JERUSALEM POST, HOTMETAL PRESS, MAD SWIRL, HAGGARD & HALLOO, ASCENT ASPIRATIONS, YELLOW MAMA, and NAMASTE FIJI: THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY. A past winner of the literary GRADIVA AWARD in Psychoanalysis, he was nominated for a PUSHCART PRIZE in literature and is the author of 11 books.
Published posts on Two Drops of Ink:
1) Poetry Break: By Mel Waldman, Ph.D.
Two Drops of Ink: The Literary Home for Collaborative Writing
For the love of poetry
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Yes, the museum is a catalyst facilitating the creative process. Each painting is a window into the Unconscious and a voyage to a transcendent place.
These are all great, but I love the first one. I have had similar thoughts flood my mind in art museums. They are inspiring places.